


Over the Rain

by doublejoint



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23504914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: You’re only as old as you feel.
Relationships: Himuro Tatsuya/Nijimura Shuuzou
Kudos: 5
Collections: On One Knee





	Over the Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justlikeswitchblades](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justlikeswitchblades/gifts).



> happy belated nijihimu <3
> 
> (takes place a little after [beyond the bend](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/devils_shuu/works/14206737))
> 
> references to injury/scarring

The rain clatters against the air conditioner in the window, and Shuuzou wonders in his haze of half-sleep if Tatsuya’s knee is hurting today. He’s said there’s no correlation, but he’s also good at lying to himself about how bad it is. He’s out of bed; Shuuzou had felt him get up but when he rolls over the other side of the bed is cold. He’s got a shitty sense of time regardless of the situation (sometimes a shift on the ice feels like ten hours; sometimes a period goes by in forty seconds) but he supposes everyone does when they’re half-asleep, falling in and out of consciousness and not stopping to count the raindrops they hear or the breaths they take. 

Shuuzou pushes himself up to a half-sitting position and glimpses the clock without necessarily intending to. It’s later than he usually gets up. There’s practice today but he’s been told that optional means he needs to stay home. He’s been going too hard and he knows it, but there’s still a huge part of him that says there’s no time to press pause, always more in you to push, always a few more hits to make a little bit harder, put a little more energy in and you beat the icing call. It’s illogical, and he’s got nothing left to prove to the staff or his teammates or the fans or anyone (well, beyond the whole winning the Cup thing, but he won’t go there right now even in his thoughts). 

The pipes in Tatsuya’s apartment are loud, but he can’t hear them at the moment so Tatsuya must be out of the shower (or maybe he’s waiting for Shuuzou--the thought makes Shuuzou smile). He can hear the sizzle of something cooking on a pan when he tilts his head, and another pleasant thought rolls through his head, Tatsuya bringing him breakfast in bed the way he had on his birthday last year--but that was before they’d broken up and gotten back together, and God, Shuuzou does not want to think about that right now. He still does at least once a day (and usually more), and it’s been a couple months since they’ve gotten back together--it’ll be a while, still. Everything heals differently, from the asphalt scars on his legs from rollerblading on his legs (he used to be able to name where and when he’d gotten each one, but now he can’t make half of them out or remember the country where he got them) to the raised lines of stitches, skin drawn over skin to make up for skates and sticks and bad luck. And Tatsuya’s knee, despite its faded scars and no bad MRIs since Shuuzou had met him, has started to un-heal. He’s been playing more minutes this year (a result, maybe, of their temporary breakup; Shuuzou hasn’t found a way to form the words around this yet--it’s a difficult subject for them both) and he’s been a little more reckless, pushing himself the way he always has and the way Shuuzou always has but even more on top of that. (Does his coach tell him to skip the optionals, too? Does he listen? Is it a suggestion and not a demand?)

Tatsuya’s sitting on a barstool in the kitchen, his leg stretched out nearly straight, nothing close to a casual pose. He’s making bacon and pancakes on the stove, and coffee (must be the second pot, he’s been up long enough already) is brewing in the machine. He turns to look at Shuuzou, a little bit of almost guilt passing across his face, probably that he’d shown so much when it comes to his knee. Shuuzou decides not to say anything about it for the moment, placing a kiss on Tatsuya’s forehead on his way by to the cabinet where Tatsuya keeps the sugar. He checks on the bacon on the way back and flips a slice; Tatsuya kicks his ankle with his good leg.

“You’ve been at it long enough,” says Shuuzou.

“I wanted to make you breakfast in bed, celebrate your day off.”

“I’ll have other ones,” says Shuuzou. 

He smiles at Tatsuya though, making sure he’s gotten his point across. “Thank you.”

Tatsuya smiles back. He looks tired, but they both always do at this point in the season. You’re only as old as you feel, or at least that’s what some of Shuuzou’s rookies say to needle him, but he feels so fucking old sometimes, worrying about aches and pains and feeling worn out instead of worn in, like he’s been trying so hard to get these new skates to stop chafing at his ankles and by the time they do they’re split open at the seams. The season’s too long, maybe, but it’s not long enough at the same time; there’s never enough hockey to be played. 

A sharp sizzle like a warning, the pancakes are burning.

“Fuck,” says Shuuzou, turning off the burner and flipping the pancakes almost in one motion--they’re charred but not inedible. He pushes the pan to the back and steps to the window, cracking it open just far enough to avoid rain coming in. The room isn’t too smoky yet, but he’s not going to set off the oversensitive alarm this early if he can help it.

“Sorry.”

“Sure you can handle all that?”

Shuuzou flips another two pieces of bacon. That’s almost done at least. 

“I’m good. Thanks.”

The smile on Tatsuya’s face is gentle, teasing, like when he’d first started to let Shuuzou in a little, right after they’d officially started dating and he’d stopped stepping quite so gingerly around everything. God, Shuuzou wants to kiss Tatsuya, pick him up and carry him into bed, tell Tatsuya to fuck him any way he likes and watch his pupil dilate and his mouth fall open, let the sounds coming from Tatsuya drown out the rain.Breakfast first (Shuuzou turns the heat back up under the pancakes) but he’s starting to feel young all over again.


End file.
